Greenwich London Borough Council Homes
Children's establishments run at some time in their history by Greenwich London Borough Council.
Kent
- Home for Roman Catholic Children Suffering from Diseases of the Scalp, Eltham Park House, Glenure Road, Eltham
- Ave Maria School, Eltham Park House, Glenure Road, Eltham
London (SE/SW Postal Areas)
- 101 Sewell Road, Abbey Wood SE2
- 13 Panfield Road, Abbey Wood SE2
- 242 Panfield Road, Abbey Wood SE2
- 40 Peterstone Road, Abbey Wood SE2
- 42 Combwell Crescent, Abbey Wood SE2
- 50 Abbey Wood Road, Abbey Wood SE2
- 51 Edington Road, Abbey Wood SE2
- 52 Chalcombe Road, Abbey Wood SE2
- 125A Broad Walk, Blackheath SE3
- 22 Kidbrooke Gardens, Blackheath SE3
- 58 Kidbrooke Grove, Blackheath SE3
- 18 Maryon Road, Charlton SE7
- 79 Eastcombe Avenue, Charlton SE7
- Reception and Assessment Centre, Stonefields, 904 Sidcup Road, Eltham SE9
- 11 Kemsing Road, Greenwich SE10
- Hostel for Mentally Sub-normal Children, Ashburnham Grove, Greenwich SE10
- 104 Gavestone Road, Lee SE12
- 226 Elmley Street, Plumstead SE18
Records
The involvement of local authorities in the running of children's homes dates from 1930, when they took over the running of the poor relief system previously administered by Boards of Guardians. Surviving records for council-run children's homes may be held in each council's own internal archives. Prior to 1991, however, when a legal requirement was introduced for councils to retain records of children leaving their care, the survival of such records is very variable. Contact details for local authorities in the UK can be found on the website of the Care Leavers Association (CLA). The CLA also provides guidance on accessing childhood care files, which are normally only open to the individuals they relate to.
Locating local authority records has been complicated by the various local government reorganizations that have taken place in recent times, such as the abolition of the London County Council in 1965, and the major nationwide restructuring in 1974 in which many administrative areas were created, amended or eliminated.
Older records may sometimes be placed with the relevant county or borough record office. Many of these repositories have online catalogues of their holdings and also contribute to the National Archives' Discovery database. Note that records containing personal data usually have access closed for a period of fifty years or more.
Older material relating to Greenwich Council homes may exist at:
- The Ancestry UK website has two collections of London workhouse records (both name searchable):
- The Find My Past website has workhouse / poor law records for Westminster.
- London Metropolitan Archives, 40 Northampton Road, London EC1R OHB.
Some records relating to council-run homes, for example inspection reports (though not resident lists etc.), are held by The National Archives (TNA). A closure period may apply to these records.
Bibliography
- Higginbotham, Peter Children's Homes: A History of Institutional Care for Britain's Young (2017, Pen & Sword)
- Urquhart, Gloria (2020) Nobody's Child: The True Story of Growing up in a Yorkshire Children's Home
- Cooke, Allan Institutionalized in a Children's Home: Skellow Hall 1950-1963 — a true story of a child and children in a home (2012, Authorhouse)
- Cummings, Les Forgotten: The Heartrending Story of Life in a Children's Home
- Limbrick, Gudrun The Children of the Homes: a century of Erdington Cottage Homes
Except where indicated, this page () © Peter Higginbotham. Contents may not be reproduced without permission.